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Principles Are More Important Than Tactics

Security doesn’t come from the specific things you do. It comes from an overall approach to doing everything. In that sense, the principles that underpin your decisions and actions matter more than the decisions and actions themselves. Those statements may seem inscrutable or contradictory so I owe you further explanation.

Process and procedure can never be made so that they will, in isolation, provide optimum security. Even for very well thought out, nearly comprehensive tactics unplanned events will always come up. You’ll have to make decisions when there’s no written plan and no precedent. When you’re making those decisions you need to weigh all the factors you can take into account and move forward based on your judgement. Your judgement here is a point-in-time reflection of your principles. If your principles fail you, so will your judgement and you’d have to get lucky for your decision to be the right one.

In most organizations, processes and procedures leave a lot of room for decision making. It’s not just the occasional judgement call that has to be made, these usually happen on a daily basis at most levels of the organization. So strong tactics but poor principles will compound over time and erode even the best security program.

Instead, focus on coming up with strong principles, and make sure everyone knows them. Clear communication, understanding and internalization is key to having principles, not just tactics. This way whenever any decision is made, there’s a good chance that the judgement behind it is sound. This also, by the way, will push decision-making down in the organization, freeing up management to tackle larger and more strategic issues and critical problems.

This is part of a series of short tips for Information Security Managers, where Stratigos Security will provide you with some of the benefits of our experience working with others like you. If you like what you read, come back for more!